The leading purveyor of commuter Internet access says sessions are way up …

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Usage of Internet access in buses, trains, and ferries is way up, said Icomera, the leading worldwide provider of such service. Icomera, a Swedish firm that pioneered 'Net access in trains, said that it had served 3.72 million sessions to 1 million users over its history.

Usage across the board, on train lines like SJ in Sweden and National Express in the UK, is up 272 percent in the last 12 months over the previous period. While Icomera didn't break out its numbers year over year, the math shows that they had at least 2 million sessions in the last year. Much of this increase is attributable to a new, free service on a major rail line.

Icomera, like most other providers, uses cellular backhaul to relay service to WiFi access points in each car of a train. A few transportation projects use or are testing satellite or fixed WiMax or WiFi transmitters.

Icomera noted that the free service on the National Express East Coast line, which runs from London to Edinburgh, had 1.3 million sessions since December 2007. The figure represents 85 percent of all passengers with laptops and 9 percent of all passengers. This line, previously operated by GNER, has had WiFi-provided Internet service for the longest period of any route in the world.

New installation of commuter-oriented Internet access has increased dramatically in the last year, neatly dovetailing with new passengers riding rails, buses, and ferries due to the spike in oil prices.